Automatic web page load detection

ABSTRACT

In one aspect, a system for automatic detection of webpage loading at a web browser of a client device in a monitored environment is disclosed. The system includes: a processor; a memory; and one or more modules stored in the memory and executable by a processor to perform operations. The operations include: detect start of loading of a webpage at the web browser of the client device in the monitored environment; set a dynamic watchdog repeating timer at a value; start the timer; recursively check for completion of the loading of the webpage; when determined that the loading of the webpage has completed, determine whether a Java script engine of the web browser loading the webpage is idle; and when determined that the Java script engine of the web browser loading the webpage is idle, stop the timer and generate a report of the webpage.

BACKGROUND

In pursuit of the highest level of service performance and userexperience, companies around the world are engaging in digitaltransformation by enhancing investments in digital technology andinformation technology (IT) services. By leveraging the global system ofinterconnected computer networks afforded by the Internet and the WorldWide Web, companies are able to provide ever increasing web services totheir clients. The web services may be provided by a web applicationwhich uses multiple services and applications to handle a giventransaction. The applications may be distributed over severalinterconnected machines, such as servers, making the topology of themachines that provide the service more difficult to track and monitor.

SUMMARY

Examples of implementations of automatic web page detection aredisclosed. Specifically, the disclosed automatic web page detection isused to perform accurate web page reports during performance monitoring.

In one aspect, a system for automatic detection of webpage loading at aweb browser of a client device in a monitored environment is disclosed.The system includes: a processor; a memory; and one or more modulesstored in the memory and executable by a processor to performoperations. The operations include: detect start of loading of a webpageat the web browser of the client device in the monitored environment;set a dynamic watchdog repeating timer at a value; start the timer;recursively check for completion of the loading of the webpage; whendetermined that the loading of the webpage has completed, determinewhether a Java script engine of the web browser loading the webpage isidle; and when determined that the Java script engine of the web browserloading the webpage is idle, stop the timer and generate a report of thewebpage.

The system can be implemented in various ways to include one or more ofthe following features. For example, when determining that that theloading of the webpage has not completed, the one or more modules can beexecutable to perform operations including: reset the timer; restart thereset timer; and perform the recursively check for completion of theloading of the webpage. When determining whether the Java script engineof the web browser loading the webpage is idle, the one or more modulescan be executable to perform operations including: determine whether anynetwork requests have ended in a most recent pre-determined time period.The one or more modules can be executable to perform the recursivelycheck for completion of the loading of the webpage including: determinewhether all pending network requests have finished; or determine whethera global ceiling has been reached; or determine both that all pendingnetwork requests have finished and a global ceiling has been reached.The one or more modules can be executable to perform the recursivelycheck for completion of the loading of the webpage including: check foriframes; and attach load listeners to the iframes when found. The one ormore modules can be executable to perform operations including: receivedata associated with the monitored environment including applicationsperformed over a distributed system of interconnected nodes of machines;receive the generated report; and correlate the received data with thegenerated report. The one or more modules can be executable to performoperations including: identify performance issues with the monitoredapplications from the received data; and determine a relationshipbetween the identified performance issues and the generated report ofthe webpage. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more modules areexecutable to perform operations including: identify nodes of interestand one or more chains of nodes connected to the nodes of interest fromthe interconnected nodes based on the received data; generate aninteractive flow map of the interconnected nodes in the distributedsystem; provide a user interface for displaying the interactive flowmap; and automatically display the interactive flow map and thecorrelated report through the provided user interface.

In another aspect, a method for automatic detection of webpage loadingat a web browser of a client device in a monitored environment isdisclosed. The method includes detecting start of loading of a webpageat the web browser of the client device in the monitored environment;setting a dynamic watchdog repeating timer at a value; starting thetimer; recursively checking for completion of the loading of thewebpage; when determined that the loading of the webpage has completed,determining whether a Java script engine of the web browser loading thewebpage is idle; and when determined that the Java script engine of theweb browser loading the webpage is idle, stopping the timer andgenerating a report of the webpage.

The method can be implemented in various ways to include one or more ofthe following features. For example, when determining that that theloading of the webpage has not completed, operations can be performedincluding: resetting the timer; restarting the reset timer; andperforming the recursively check for completion of the loading of thewebpage. When determining whether the Java script engine of the webbrowser loading the webpage is idle, operations can be including:determining whether any network requests have ended in a most recentpre-determined time period. Recursively checking for completion of theloading of the webpage can include: determining whether all pendingnetwork requests have finished; or determining whether a global ceilinghas been reached; or determining that both all pending network requestshave finished and a global ceiling has been reached. Recursivelychecking for completion of the loading of the webpage can include:checking for iframes; and attaching load listeners to the iframes whenfound. The method can include receiving data associated with themonitored environment including applications performed over adistributed system of interconnected nodes of machines; receiving thegenerated report; and correlating the received data with the generatedreport. The method can include identifying performance issues with themonitored applications from the received data; and determining arelationship between the identified performance issues and the generatedreport of the webpage. The method can include: identifying nodes ofinterest and one or more chains of nodes connected to the nodes ofinterest from the interconnected nodes based on the received data;generating an interactive flow map of the interconnected nodes in thedistributed system; provide a user interface for displaying theinteractive flow map; and automatically displaying the interactive flowmap and the correlated report through the provided user interface.

In yet another aspect, a non-transitory computer readable mediumembodying instructions when executed by a processor to cause operationsto be performed for automatic detection of webpage loading at a webbrowser of a client device in a monitored environment is disclosed. Theoperations include: detecting start of loading of a webpage at the webbrowser of the client device in the monitored environment; setting adynamic watchdog repeating timer at a value; starting the timer;recursively checking for completion of the loading of the webpage; whendetermined that the loading of the webpage has completed, determiningwhether a Java script engine of the web browser loading the webpage isidle; and when determined that the Java script engine of the web browserloading the webpage is idle, stopping the timer and generating a reportof the webpage.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can be implemented invarious ways to include one or more of the following features. Forexample, when determining that that the loading of the webpage has notcompleted, operations can be performed including: resetting the timer;restarting the reset timer; and performing the recursively check forcompletion of the loading of the webpage. When determining whether theJava script engine of the web browser loading the webpage is idle,operations can be performed including: determining whether any networkrequests have ended in a most recent pre-determined time period.Recursively checking for completion of the loading of the webpageinclude: determining whether all pending network requests have finished;or determining whether a global ceiling has been reached; or determiningthat both all pending network requests have finished and a globalceiling has been reached. Recursively checking for completion of theloading of the webpage can include: checking for iframes; and attachingload listeners to the iframes when found. The operations can includereceiving data associated with the monitored environment includingapplications performed over a distributed system of interconnected nodesof machines; receiving the generated report; and correlating thereceived data with the generated report. The operations can include:identifying performance issues with the monitored applications from thereceived data; and determining a relationship between the identifiedperformance issues and the generated report of the webpage. Theoperations can include identifying nodes of interest and one or morechains of nodes connected to the nodes of interest from theinterconnected nodes based on the received data; generating aninteractive flow map of the interconnected nodes in the distributedsystem; providing a user interface for displaying the interactive flowmap; and automatically displaying the interactive flow map and thecorrelated report through the provided user interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a process flow diagram of an exemplary process forautomatically detecting web page loading.

FIG. 1B is a process flow diagram of another exemplary process forautomatically detecting web page loading that adds additional featuresto the process disclosed in FIG. 1A.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are process flow diagrams of exemplar processes forcorrelating monitored performance data and the generated webpage report.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary application intelligenceplatform that can implement the automatic detection of webpage loadingas disclosed in this patent document.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary system for automatic detectionof webpage loading as disclosed in this patent document, including theprocesses disclosed with respect to FIGS. 1A-1B and 2A-2B.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system implementingthe disclosed technology.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The Internet and the World Wide Web have enabled the proliferation ofweb services available for virtually all types of businesses. Due to theaccompanying complexity of the infrastructure supporting the webservices, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the highestlevel of service performance and user experience to keep up with theincrease in web services. For example, it can be challenging to piecetogether monitoring and logging data across disparate systems, tools,and layers in a network architecture. Moreover, even when data can beobtained, it is difficult to directly connect the chain of events andcause and effect.

To maintain the highest level of service performance and end userexperience, each web application can be monitored to provide insightinto information that can negatively affect the overall performance ofthe web application, which can cause negative end user experience. Forexample, when monitoring and reporting of web pages including anyperformance issues, the complete loading of the web pages must beaccurately detected to prevent generating a report during middle of theloading of the webpages, which will provide inaccurate information.

Automatic Detection of Web Page Loading Overview

The technology disclosed in this patent document provides for dynamicand efficient application intelligence platforms, systems, devices,methods, and computer readable media including non-transitory type thatembody instructions for causing a machine including a processor toperform various operations disclosed in this patent document toautomatically detect webpage loading. The disclosed technology providesthe automatic detection of webpage loading so that a report of thewebpage can be generated after the web page has finished loading andrendering the loaded data to provide accurate up to date information onthe webpage. Generating a webpage report can include generating asnapshot image of the webpage in PDF format, for example. Currentreporting mechanisms for webpages rely on detecting that all scripts onthe base page have loaded. Any webpage with asynchronously loaded datacan be left partially rendered when generating a PDF or Image basedreport. When a report is generated for a web page when the loaded datais only partially rendered, the generated webpage report is inaccurateand unusable. The disclosed technology can be used to detect a loadedstate for a webpage which makes serially dependent network calls to theserver in order to display report data. The network calls may be images,iframes, and other data network calls to complete before the snapshottakes place.

The disclosed technology advantageous over methods that use a statictimeout. Using static timeouts is not effective because a static timeoutby nature rely on a single timeout value for all situations, meaningevery report (big and small) need to wait for this timeout beforecompleting the report rendering. A static timeout also may not be largeenough, and can result in incomplete reports.

Automatic Detection of Web Page Loading Process

As discussed above, taking screenshots of a product can be difficultwhen the product is a dynamically loaded web page. Detecting that a webpage has finished loading and rendering the loaded data is not a trivialproblem. Resources such as iframes (web pages within webpages), imagesand other network based resources are difficult to track. Intermediateprocessing in browsers virtual machine (VM) may also make the taskdifficult, as network requests may occur asynchronously as a smallamount of time processing has happened between network requests.

The disclosed technology provides a solution to the problem ofautomatically detecting loading of webpages and rendering of the loadeddata includes methods for tracking two sets of conditions: 1) track allresources being loaded including images, iframes, and other networkrequests and 2) track the last received request's timestamp. Using thesemethods for tracking the two sets of conditions together, the disclosedtechnology can be used to consistently determine when there are inflightrequests and whether the timestamp of last request has completed—thatthe webpage has loaded and rendered all loaded data.

A pre-determined timeout period (e.g., 1 to 2.5 seconds) can be used bya Reporter (which can be installed at the web browser of a clientdevice) to poll whether a given webpage has finished loading andrendering the loaded data by verifying both that there are no opennetwork requests and the last request completed is completed more than[x] seconds ago, where [x] is a configurable timeout value. The value of[x] can be set to the largest possible amount of time that the webpagewill use for processing computation, layout, and rendering.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are process flow diagrams of exemplary processes 100 and102 for automatically detecting of web page loading and rendering of theloaded data as disclosed. The process 102 is substantially similar tothe process 100 but add additional features for recursively checking forcompletion of the webpage loading. The process includes detecting startof webpage loading (110). A dynamics watchdog repeating timer is set fora timeout period (e.g., between 1 and 2.5 seconds as previous disclosed)(120) and the timer is started (130). The Reporter performs recursivechecks for webpage loading completion (140). When detecting that thewebpage loading has not completed, the time is reset (160), and theprocess returns to restart the reset timer (130). When detecting thatthe webpage loading has completed, the Report determines whether the webbrowser's Java scrip (JS) engine idle and that no network requests haveended in the last [x] time period (150). When detecting that the webbrowser's Java scrip (JS) engine idle and that no network requests haveended in the last [x] time period, the timer is stopped (170), and areport of the web page is generated (180). The generated web page reportcan include a snapshot image of the webpage that has completed loadingand rendering. When detecting that the web browser's Java scrip (JS)engine is not idle and that network requests have ended in the last [x]time period, the timer is reset (16), and the process returns to restartthe reset timer (130).

In FIG. 1B, the process 102 shows additional features for recursivelychecking for web page load completion (140). After the timer fires(130), the Reporter determines whether all pending network requests aredone a global ceiling has not been reached (142). When determining thatnot all pending network requests are done and/or a global ceiling hasbeen reached, the timer is reset (160), and the process returns torestart the reset timer (130).

When determining that all pending network requests are done and a globalceiling has not been reached, the webpage is searched to determinewhether iframes are found (144). When determining that iframes arefound, load listeners are attached to the iframes (146). When determinedthat iframes are not found or after the load listeners are attached tothe found iframes, the process moves to check whether the web browser isidle (150). Specifically, a determination is made at 150 whether the webbrowser's JS engine is idle and that no network requests have ended inthe last [x] time period, the timer is stopped (170), and a report ofthe web page is generated (180). The generated web page report caninclude a snapshot image of the webpage that has completed loading andrendering. When detecting that the web browser's Java scrip (JS) engineis not idle and that network requests have ended in the last [x] timeperiod, the timer is reset (16), and the process returns to restart thereset timer (130).

FIGS. 2A and 2B are process flow diagrams of exemplar processes 200 and202 for correlating monitored performance data and the generated webpagereport. As discussed further below with respect to FIGS. 5-7,performance issues with a monitored environment is detected bymonitoring applications and nodes in the monitored environment usingagents installed at individual machines in the nodes. Each node caninclude one or more machines that perform part of the applications. Theagents collect data associated with the applications of interest andassociated nodes and machines where the applications are being operated.Examples of the collected data include performance data, such asmetrics, metadata, and topology data that indicate relationshipinformation. A controller in communication with the agents receive thedata collected by the agents (210). The controller can analyze thereceived monitored data to identify performance issues with themonitored applications (212). The controller analyzes the received dataand the generated report to correlate the monitored data with thewebpage report (220). The correlation can be used to illustrate howmonitored applications are related to and affects the webpages at theclients (e.g. client devices with network connections to the monitoredapplications). In some implementations, any performance issuesidentified from the monitored data can be correlated to the webpagereport that shows the conditions, status, and performance of the webpages, for example.

In some implementations, the controller can also analyze the monitoreddata to identify nodes of interest. The nodes of interest can be thosenodes with performance issues (e.g., compared to a threshold, based onclassification algorithm, machine learning, etc.). The controller cangenerate an interactive flow map of the monitored environment withvertices representing tiers and nodes of machines that perform theapplications. The collected data that includes metadata or topology datacan be used to generate the interactive flow map. The interactive flowmap also shows the connections (indicating the relationship information)between the vertices to show how the vertices are connected to oneanother.

Through the user interface, the controller can display the generatedflow map with the identified nodes of interest automatically visuallydifferentiated from rest of the nodes in the flow map. For example, thenodes of interest can be displayed with a different color than the restof the normal nodes. All of the nodes of interest having performanceissues can be displayed as red nodes and the normal nodes can bedisplayed as green nodes, for example. Other ways to differentiate thenodes of interest include using highlights, shadings, sizes, etc. Byvisually differentiating the nodes of interest, potential problems inthe monitored nodes and applications can be easily and instantaneousconveyed to a user.

Application Intelligence Platform Architecture

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary application intelligenceplatform 300 that can implement the automatic detection of webpageloading as disclosed in this patent document. The applicationintelligence platform is a system that monitors and collect metrics ofperformance data for an application environment being monitored. At thesimplest structure, the application intelligence platform includes oneor more agents 310, 312, 314, 316 and one or more controllers 320. WhileFIG. 3 shows four agents communicatively linked to a single controller,the total number of agents and controller can vary based on a number offactors including the number of applications monitored, how distributedthe application environment is, the level of monitoring desired, thelevel of user experience desired, etc.

Controllers and Agents

The controller 320 is the central processing and administration serverfor application intelligence platform. The controller 320 serves abrowser-based user interface (UI) 330 that is the primary interface formonitoring, analyzing, and troubleshooting the monitored environment.The controller 320 can control and manage monitoring of businesstransactions distributed over application servers. Specifically, thecontroller 320 can receive runtime data from agents 310, 312, 314, 316and coordinators, associate portions of business transaction data,communicate with agents to configure collection of runtime data, andprovide performance data and reporting through the interface 330. Theinterface 330 may be viewed as a web-based interface viewable by aclient device 340. In some implementations, a client device 340 candirectly communicate with controller 320 to view an interface formonitoring data.

In the Software as a Service (SaaS) implementation, a controllerinstance 320 is hosted remotely by a provider of the applicationintelligence platform 300. In the on-premise (On-Prem) implementation, acontroller instance 320 is installed locally and self-administered.

The controllers 320 receive data from different agents 310, 312, 314,316 deployed to monitor applications, databases and database servers,servers, and end user clients for the monitored environment. Any of theagents 310, 312, 314, 316 can be implemented as different types ofagents specific monitoring duties. For example, application agents areinstalled on each server that hosts applications to be monitored.Instrumenting an agent adds an application agent into the runtimeprocess of the application.

Database agents are software (e.g., Java program) installed on a machinethat has network access to the monitored databases and the controller.Database agents queries the databases monitored to collect metrics andpasses the metrics for display in the metric browser—database monitoringand in the databases pages of the controller UI. Multiple databaseagents can report to the same controller. Additional database agents canbe implemented as backup database agents to take over for the primarydatabase agents during a failure or planned machine downtime. Theadditional database agents can run on the same machine as the primaryagents or on different machines. A database agent can be deployed ineach distinct network of the monitored environment. Multiple databaseagents can run under different user accounts on the same machine.

Standalone machine agents are standalone programs (e.g., standalone Javaprogram) that collect hardware-related performance statistics from theservers in the monitored environment. The standalone machine agents canbe deployed on machines that host application servers, database servers,messaging servers, Web servers, etc. A standalone machine agent has anextensible architecture.

End user monitoring (EUM) is performed using browser agents and mobileagents to provide performance information from the point of view of theclient, such as a web browser or a mobile native application. Browseragents and mobile agents are unlike other monitoring through applicationagents, database agents, and standalone machine agents that being on theserver. Through EUM, web use (e.g., by real users or synthetic agents),mobile use, or any combination can be monitored depending on themonitoring needs. Browser agents (e.g., agents 310, 312, 314, 316) caninclude Reporters that perform the automatic webpage loading detectionas disclosed in this patent document.

Browser agents are small files using web-based technologies, such asJavaScript agents injected into each instrumented web page, as close tothe top as possible, as the web page is served and collects data. Oncethe web page has completed loading, the collected data is bundled into abeacon and sent to the EUM cloud for processing and ready for retrievalby the controller. Browser real user monitoring (Browser RUM) providesinsights into the performance of a web application from the point ofview of a real or synthetic end user. For example, Browser RUM candetermine how specific Ajax or iframe calls are slowing down page loadtime and how server performance impact end user experience in aggregateor in individual cases.

A mobile agent is a small piece of highly performant code that getsadded to the source of the mobile application. Mobile RUM providesinformation on the native iOS or Android mobile application as the endusers actually use the mobile application. Mobile RUM providesvisibility into the functioning of the mobile application itself and themobile application's interaction with the network used and anyserver-side applications the mobile application communicates with.

The controller 320 can include a visualization system 350 for displayingthe reports generated by the Reporters at the browser agents asdisclosed in this patent document. In some implementations, thevisualization system 350 can be implemented in a separate machine (e.g.,a server) different from the one hosting the controller 320.

Application Intelligence Monitoring

The disclosed technology can provide application intelligence data bymonitoring an application environment that includes various servicessuch as web applications served from an application server (e.g., Javavirtual machine (JVM), Internet Information Services (IIS), HypertextPreprocessor (PHP) Web server, etc.), databases or other data stores,and remote services such as message queues and caches. The services inthe application environment can interact in various ways to provide aset of cohesive user interactions with the application, such as a set ofuser services applicable to end user customers.

Application Intelligence Modeling

Entities in the application environment (such as the JBoss service,MQSeries modules, and databases) and the services provided by theentities (such as a login transaction, service or product search, orpurchase transaction) are mapped to an application intelligence model.In the application intelligence model, a business transaction representsa particular service provided by the monitored environment. For example,in an e-commerce application, particular real-world services can includeuser logging in, searching for items, or adding items to the cart. In acontent portal, particular real-world services can include user requestsfor content such as sports, business, or entertainment news. In a stocktrading application, particular real-world services can includeoperations such as receiving a stock quote, buying, or selling stocks.

Business Transactions

A business transaction representation of the particular service providedby the monitored environment provides a view on performance data in thecontext of the various tiers that participate in processing a particularrequest. A business transaction represents the end-to-end processingpath used to fulfill a service request in the monitored environment.Thus, a business environment is a type of user-initiated action in themonitored environment defined by an entry point and a processing pathacross application servers, databases, and potentially many otherinfrastructure components. Each instance of a business transaction is anexecution of that transaction in response to a particular user request.A business transaction can be created by detecting incoming requests atan entry point and tracking the activity associated with request at theoriginating tier and across distributed components in the applicationenvironment. A flow map can be generated for a business transaction thatshows the touch points for the business transaction in the applicationenvironment.

Performance monitoring can be oriented by business transaction to focuson the performance of the services in the application environment fromthe perspective of end users. Performance monitoring based on businesstransaction can provide information on whether a service is available(e.g., users can log in, check out, or view their data), response timesfor users, and the cause of problems when the problems occur.

Business Applications

A business application is the top-level container in the applicationintelligence model. A business application contains a set of relatedservices and business transactions. In some implementations, a singlebusiness application may be needed to model the environment. In someimplementations, the application intelligence model of the applicationenvironment can be divided into several business applications. Businessapplications can be organized differently based on the specifics of theapplication environment. One consideration is to organize the businessapplications in a way that reflects work teams in a particularorganization, since role-based access controls in the Controller UI areoriented by business application.

Nodes

A node in the application intelligence model corresponds to a monitoredserver or JVM in the application environment. A node is the smallestunit of the modeled environment. In general, a node corresponds to anindividual application server, JVM, or CLR on which a monitoring Agentis installed. Each node identifies itself in the applicationintelligence model. The Agent installed at the node is configured tospecify the name of the node, tier, and business application under whichthe Agent reports data to the Controller.

Tiers

Business applications contain tiers, the unit in the applicationintelligence model that includes one or more nodes. Each node representsan instrumented service (such as a web application). While a node can bea distinct application in the application environment, in theapplication intelligence model, a node is a member of a tier, which,along with possibly many other tiers, make up the overall logicalbusiness application.

Tiers can be organized in the application intelligence model dependingon a mental model of the monitored application environment. For example,identical nodes can be grouped into a single tier (such as a cluster ofredundant servers). In some implementations, any set of nodes, identicalor not, can be grouped for the purpose of treating certain performancemetrics as a unit into a single tier.

The traffic in a business application is among tiers and can bevisualized in a flow map using lines among tiers. In addition, the linesindicating the traffic flows among tiers can be annotated withperformance metrics. In the application intelligence model, there maynot be any interaction among nodes within a single tier. Also, in someimplementations, an application agent erode cannot belong to more thanone tier. Similarly, a machine agent cannot belong to more than onetier. However, more than one machine agent can be installed on amachine.

Backend System

A backend is a component that participates in the processing of abusiness transaction instance. A backend is not instrumented by anagent. A backend may be a web server, database, message queue, or othertype of service. The agent recognizes calls to these backend servicesfrom instrumented code (called exit calls). When a service is notinstrumented and cannot continue the transaction context of the call,the agent determines that the service is a backend component. The agentpicks up the transaction context at the response at the backend andcontinues to follow the context of the transaction from there.

Performance information is available for the backend call. For detailedtransaction analysis for the leg of a transaction processed by thebackend, the database, web service, or other application need to beinstrumented.

Baselines and Thresholds

The application intelligence platform uses both self-learned baselinesand configurable thresholds to help identify application issues. Acomplex distributed application has a large number of performancemetrics and each metric is important in one or more contexts. In suchenvironments, it is difficult to determine the values or ranges that arenormal for a particular metric; set meaningful thresholds on which tobase and receive relevant alerts; and determine what is a “normal”metric when the application or infrastructure undergoes change. Forthese reasons, the disclosed application intelligence platform canperform anomaly detection based on dynamic baselines or thresholds.

The disclosed application intelligence platform automatically calculatesdynamic baselines for the monitored metrics, defining what is “normal”for each metric based on actual usage. The application intelligenceplatform uses these baselines to identify subsequent metrics whosevalues fall out of this normal range. Static thresholds that are tediousto set up and, in rapidly changing application environments,error-prone, are no longer needed.

The disclosed application intelligence platform can use configurablethresholds to maintain service level agreements (SLAs) and ensureoptimum performance levels for your system by detecting slow, very slow,and stalled transactions. Configurable thresholds provide a flexible wayto associate the right business context with a slow request to isolatethe root cause.

Health Rules, Policies, and Actions

In addition, health rules can be set up with conditions that use thedynamically generated baselines to trigger alerts or initiate othertypes of remedial actions when performance problems are occurring or maybe about to occur.

For example, dynamic baselines can be used to automatically establishwhat is considered normal behavior for a particular application.Policies and health rules can be used against baselines or other healthindicators for a particular application to detect and troubleshootproblems before users are affected. Health rules can be used to definemetric conditions to monitor, such as when the “average response time isfour times slower than the baseline”. The health rules can be createdand modified based on the monitored application environment.

Examples of health rules for testing business transaction performancecan include business transaction response time and business transactionerror rate. For example, health rule that tests whether the businesstransaction response time is much higher than normal can define acritical condition as the combination of an average response timegreater than the default baseline by 3 standard deviations and a loadgreater than 50 calls per minute. This health rule can define a warningcondition as the combination of an average response time greater thanthe default baseline by 2 standard deviations and a load greater than100 calls per minute. The health rule that tests whether the businesstransaction error rate is much higher than normal can define a criticalcondition as the combination of an error rate greater than the defaultbaseline by 3 standard deviations and an error rate greater than 10errors per minute and a load greater than 50 calls per minute. Thishealth rule can define a warning condition as the combination of anerror rate greater than the default baseline by 2 standard deviationsand an error rate greater than 5 errors per minute and a load greaterthan 50 calls per minute.

Policies can be configured to trigger actions when a health rule isviolated or when any event occurs. Triggered actions can includenotifications, diagnostic actions, auto-scaling capacity, runningremediation scripts.

Metrics

Most of the metrics relate to the overall performance of the applicationor business transaction (e.g., load, average response time, error rate,etc.) or of the application server infrastructure (e.g., percentage CPUbusy, percentage of memory used, etc.). The Metric Browser in thecontroller UI can be used to view all of the metrics that the agentsreport to the controller.

In addition, special metrics called information points can be created toreport on how a given business (as opposed to a given application) isperforming. For example, the performance of the total revenue for acertain product or set of products can be monitored. Also, informationpoints can be used to report on how a given code is performing, forexample how many times a specific method is called and how long it istaking to execute. Moreover, extensions that use the machine agent canbe created to report user defined custom metrics. These custom metricsare base-lined and reported in the controller, just like the built-inmetrics.

All metrics can be accessed programmatically using a RepresentationalState Transfer (REST) API that returns either the JavaScript ObjectNotation (JSON) or the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format. Also,the REST API can be used to query and manipulate the applicationenvironment.

Snapshots

Snapshots provide a detailed picture application at a certain point intime.

Snapshots usually include call graphs that allow that enables drillingdown to the line of code that may be causing performance problems. Themost common snapshots are transaction snapshots.

Exemplary Implementation of Application Intelligence Platform

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary system 400 for automaticdetection of webpage loading as disclosed in this patent document,including the processes disclosed with respect to FIGS. 1A-B and 2A-2B.The system 400 in FIG. 4 includes client device 405 and 492, mobiledevice 415, network 420, network server 425, application servers 430,440, 450 and 460, asynchronous network machine 470, data stores 480 and485, controller 490, and data collection server 495. The controller 490can include visualization system 496 for providing displaying of thereport generated by the Reporters at the browser agents as disclosed inthis patent document. In some implementations, the visualization system496 can be implemented in a separate machine (e.g., a server) differentfrom the one hosting the controller 490.

Client device 405 may include network browser 410 and be implemented asa computing device, such as for example a laptop, desktop, workstation,or some other computing device. Network browser 410 may be a clientapplication for viewing content provided by an application server, suchas application server 430 via network server 425 over network 420.

Network browser 410 may include agent 412. Agent 412 may be installed onnetwork browser 410 and/or client 405 as a network browser add-on,downloading the application to the server, or in some other manner.Agent 412 may be executed to monitor network browser 410, the operatingsystem of client 405, and any other application, API, or anothercomponent of client 405. Agent 412 may determine network browsernavigation timing metrics, access browser cookies, monitor code, andtransmit data to data collection 460, controller 490, or another device.Agent 412 may perform other operations related to monitoring a requestor a network at client 405 as discussed herein including the Report forautomatic detection of webpage loading and report generating.

Mobile device 415 is connected to network 420 and may be implemented asa portable device suitable for sending and receiving content over anetwork, such as for example a mobile phone, smart phone, tabletcomputer, or other portable device. Both client device 405 and mobiledevice 415 may include hardware and/or software configured to access aweb service provided by network server 425.

Mobile device 415 may include network browser 417 and an agent 419.Mobile device may also include client applications and other code thatmay be monitored by agent 419. Agent 419 may reside in and/orcommunicate with network browser 417, as well as communicate with otherapplications, an operating system, APIs and other hardware and softwareon mobile device 415. Agent 419 may have similar functionality as thatdescribed herein for agent 412 on client 405, and may repot data to datacollection server 460 and/or controller 490.

Network 420 may facilitate communication of data among differentservers, devices and machines of system 400 (some connections shown withlines to network 420, some not shown). The network may be implemented asa private network, public network, intranet, the Internet, a cellularnetwork, Wi-Fi network, VoIP network, or a combination of one or more ofthese networks. The network 420 may include one or more machines such asload balance machines and other machines.

Network server 425 is connected to network 420 and may receive andprocess requests received over network 420. Network server 425 may beimplemented as one or more servers implementing a network service, andmay be implemented on the same machine as application server 430 or oneor more separate machines. When network 420 is the Internet, networkserver 425 may be implemented as a web server.

Application server 430 communicates with network server 425, applicationservers 440 and 450, and controller 490. Application server 450 may alsocommunicate with other machines and devices (not illustrated in FIG. 4).Application server 430 may host an application or portions of adistributed application. The host application 432 may be in one of manyplatforms, such as including a Java, PHP, .Net, and Node.JS, beimplemented as a Java virtual machine, or include some other host type.Application server 430 may also include one or more agents 434 (i.e.“modules”), including a language agent, machine agent, and networkagent, and other software modules. Application server 430 may beimplemented as one server or multiple servers as illustrated in FIG. 4.

Application 432 and other software on application server 430 may beinstrumented using byte code insertion, or byte code instrumentation(BCI), to modify the object code of the application or other software.The instrumented object code may include code used to detect callsreceived by application 432, calls sent by application 432, andcommunicate with agent 434 during execution of the application. BCI mayalso be used to monitor one or more sockets of the application and/orapplication server in order to monitor the socket and capture packetscoming over the socket.

In some embodiments, server 430 may include applications and/or codeother than a virtual machine. For example, servers 430, 440, 450, and460 may each include Java code, .Net code, PHP code, Ruby code, C code,C++ or other binary code to implement applications and process requestsreceived from a remote source. References to a virtual machine withrespect to an application server are intended to be for exemplarypurposes only.

Agents 434 on application server 430 may be installed, downloaded,embedded, or otherwise provided on application server 430. For example,agents 434 may be provided in server 430 by instrumentation of objectcode, downloading the agents to the server, or in some other manner.Agent 434 may be executed to monitor application server 430, monitorcode running in a virtual machine 432 (or other program language, suchas a PHP, .Net, or C program), machine resources, network layer data,and communicate with byte instrumented code on application server 430and one or more applications on application server 430.

Each of agents 434, 444, 454 and 464 may include one or more agents,such as language agents, machine agents, and network agents. A languageagent may be a type of agent that is suitable to run on a particularhost. Examples of language agents include a JAVA agent, .Net agent, PHPagent, and other agents. The machine agent may collect data from aparticular machine on which it is installed. A network agent may capturenetwork information, such as data collected from a socket.

Agent 434 may detect operations such as receiving calls and sendingrequests by application server 430, resource usage, and incomingpackets. Agent 434 may receive data, process the data, for example byaggregating data into metrics, and transmit the data and/or metrics tocontroller 490. Agent 434 may perform other operations related tomonitoring applications and application server 430 as discussed herein.For example, agent 434 may identify other applications, share businesstransaction data, aggregate detected runtime data, and other operations.

An agent may operate to monitor a node, tier or nodes or other entity. Anode may be a software program or a hardware component (e.g., memory,processor, and so on). A tier of nodes may include a plurality of nodeswhich may process a similar business transaction, may be located on thesame server, may be associated with each other in some other way, or maynot be associated with each other.

A language agent may be an agent suitable to instrument or modify,collect data from, and reside on a host. The host may be a Java, PHP,.Net, Node.JS, or other type of platform. Language agent may collectflow data as well as data associated with the execution of a particularapplication. The language agent may instrument the lowest level of theapplication to gather the flow data. The flow data may indicate whichtier is communicating with which tier and on which port. In someinstances, the flow data collected from the language agent includes asource IP, a source port, a destination IP, and a destination port. Thelanguage agent may report the application data and call chain data to acontroller. The language agent may report the collected flow dataassociated with a particular application to a network agent.

A network agent may be a standalone agent that resides on the host andcollects network flow group data. The network flow group data mayinclude a source IP, destination port, destination IP, and protocolinformation for network flow received by an application on which networkagent is installed. The network agent may collect data by interceptingand performing packet capture on packets coming in from a one or moresockets. The network agent may receive flow data from a language agentthat is associated with applications to be monitored. For flows in theflow group data that match flow data provided by the language agent, thenetwork agent rolls up the flow data to determine metrics such as TCPthroughput, TCP loss, latency and bandwidth. The network agent may thenreport the metrics, flow group data, and call chain data to acontroller. The network agent may also make system calls at anapplication server to determine system information, such as for examplea host status check, a network status check, socket status, and otherinformation.

A machine agent may reside on the host and collect information regardingthe machine which implements the host. A machine agent may collect andgenerate metrics from information such as processor usage, memory usage,and other hardware information.

Each of the language agent, network agent, and machine agent may reportdata to the controller. Controller 490 may be implemented as a remoteserver that communicates with agents located on one or more servers ormachines. The controller may receive metrics, call chain data and otherdata, correlate the received data as part of a distributed transaction,and report the correlated data in the context of a distributedapplication implemented by one or more monitored applications andoccurring over one or more monitored networks. The controller mayprovide reports, one or more user interfaces, and other information fora user.

Agent 434 may create a request identifier for a request received byserver 430 (for example, a request received by a client 405 or 415associated with a user or another source). The request identifier may besent to client 405 or mobile device 415, whichever device sent therequest. In embodiments, the request identifier may be created when adata is collected and analyzed for a particular business transaction.

Each of application servers 440, 450 and 460 may include an applicationand agents. Each application may run on the corresponding applicationserver. Each of applications 442, 452 and 462 on application servers440-460 may operate similarly to application 432 and perform at least aportion of a distributed business transaction. Agents 444, 454 and 464may monitor applications 442-462, collect and process data at runtime,and communicate with controller 490. The applications 432, 442, 452 and462 may communicate with each other as part of performing a distributedtransaction. In particular, each application may call any application ormethod of another virtual machine.

Asynchronous network machine 470 may engage in asynchronouscommunications with one or more application servers, such as applicationserver 450 and 460. For example, application server 450 may transmitseveral calls or messages to an asynchronous network machine. Ratherthan communicate back to application server 450, the asynchronousnetwork machine may process the messages and eventually provide aresponse, such as a processed message, to application server 460.Because there is no return message from the asynchronous network machineto application server 450, the communications among them areasynchronous.

Data stores 480 and 485 may each be accessed by application servers suchas application server 450. Data store 485 may also be accessed byapplication server 450. Each of data stores 480 and 485 may store data,process data, and return queries received from an application server.Each of data stores 480 and 485 may or may not include an agent.

Controller 490 may control and manage monitoring of businesstransactions distributed over application servers 430-460. In someembodiments, controller 490 may receive application data, including dataassociated with monitoring client requests at client 405 and mobiledevice 415, from data collection server 460. In some embodiments,controller 490 may receive application monitoring data and network datafrom each of agents 412, 419, 434, 444 and 454. Controller 490 mayassociate portions of business transaction data, communicate with agentsto configure collection of data, and provide performance data andreporting through an interface. The interface may be viewed as aweb-based interface viewable by client device 492, which may be a mobiledevice, client device, or any other platform for viewing an interfaceprovided by controller 490. In some embodiments, a client device 492 maydirectly communicate with controller 490 to view an interface formonitoring data.

Client device 492 may include any computing device, including a mobiledevice or a client computer such as a desktop, work station or othercomputing device. Client computer 492 may communicate with controller490 to create and view a custom interface. In some embodiments,controller 490 provides an interface for creating and viewing the custominterface as a content page, e.g., a web page, which may be provided toand rendered through a network browser application on client device 492.

Applications 432, 442, 452 and 462 may be any of several types ofapplications. Examples of applications that may implement applications432-462 include a Java, PHP, .Net, Node.JS, and other applications.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a computer system 500 for implementing thepresent technology. System 500 of FIG. 5 may be implemented in thecontexts of the likes of clients 405, 492, network server 425, servers430, 440, 450, 460, a synchronous network machine 470 and controller490.

The computing system 500 of FIG. 5 includes one or more processors 510and memory 520. Main memory 520 stores, in part, instructions and datafor execution by processor 510. Main memory 510 can store the executablecode when in operation. The system 500 of FIG. 5 further includes a massstorage device 530, portable storage medium drive(s) 540, output devices550, user input devices 560, a graphics display 570, and peripheraldevices 580.

The components shown in FIG. 5 are depicted as being connected via asingle bus 590. However, the components may be connected through one ormore data transport means. For example, processor unit 510 and mainmemory 520 may be connected via a local microprocessor bus, and the massstorage device 530, peripheral device(s) 580, portable or remote storagedevice 540, and display system 570 may be connected via one or moreinput/output (I/O) buses.

Mass storage device 530, which may be implemented with a magnetic diskdrive or an optical disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device forstoring data and instructions for use by processor unit 510. Massstorage device 530 can store the system software for implementingembodiments of the present invention for purposes of loading thatsoftware into main memory 620.

Portable storage device 540 operates in conjunction with a portablenon-volatile storage medium, such as a compact disk, digital video disk,magnetic disk, flash storage, etc. to input and output data and code toand from the computer system 500 of FIG. 5. The system software forimplementing embodiments of the present invention may be stored on sucha portable medium and input to the computer system 500 via the portablestorage device 540.

Input devices 560 provide a portion of a user interface. Input devices560 may include an alpha-numeric keypad, such as a keyboard, forinputting alpha-numeric and other information, or a pointing device,such as a mouse, a trackball, stylus, or cursor direction keys.Additionally, the system 500 as shown in FIG. 5 includes output devices550. Examples of suitable output devices include speakers, printers,network interfaces, and monitors.

Display system 570 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) or othersuitable display device. Display system 570 receives textual andgraphical information, and processes the information for output to thedisplay device.

Peripherals 580 may include any type of computer support device to addadditional functionality to the computer system. For example, peripheraldevice(s) 580 may include a modem or a router.

The components contained in the computer system 500 of FIG. 5 caninclude a personal computer, hand held computing device, telephone,mobile computing device, workstation, server, minicomputer, mainframecomputer, or any other computing device. The computer can also includedifferent bus configurations, networked platforms, multi-processorplatforms, etc. Various operating systems can be used including Unix,Linux, Windows, Apple OS, and other suitable operating systems,including mobile versions.

When implementing a mobile device such as smart phone or tabletcomputer, the computer system 500 of FIG. 5 may include one or moreantennas, radios, and other circuitry for communicating over wirelesssignals, such as for example communication using Wi-Fi, cellular, orother wireless signals.

While this patent document contains many specifics, these should not beconstrued as limitations on the scope of any invention or of what may beclaimed, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific toparticular embodiments of particular inventions. Certain features thatare described in this patent document in the context of separateembodiments can also be implemented in combination in a singleembodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in thecontext of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multipleembodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover,although features may be described above as acting in certaincombinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more featuresfrom a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from thecombination, and the claimed combination may be directed to asubcombination or variation of a subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particularorder, this should not be understood as requiring that such operationsbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. Moreover, the separation of various system components in theembodiments described in this patent document should not be understoodas requiring such separation in all embodiments.

Only a few implementations and examples are described and otherimplementations, enhancements and variations can be made based on whatis described and illustrated in this patent document.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for automatic detection of web pageloading at a web browser of a client device in a monitored environment,the system including: a processor; a memory; and one or more modulesstored in the memory and executable by a processor to perform operationsincluding: detect start of loading of a web page at the web browser ofthe client device in the monitored environment; set a dynamic watchdogrepeating timer at a value; start the timer; recursively check forcompletion of the loading of the web page; when determined that theloading of the web page has completed, determine whether a Java scriptengine of the web browser loading the web page is idle; when determinedthat the Java script engine of the web browser loading the web page isidle, stop the timer and generate a report of the web page; and send thegenerated report to a device in the network receiving data associatedwith the monitored environment including applications performed over adistributed system of interconnected nodes of machines to correlate thereceived data with the generated report; wherein the device including aprocessor and a memory, is configured to: identify nodes of interest andone or more chains of nodes connected to the nodes of interest from theinterconnected nodes based on the received data, generate an interactiveflow map of the interconnected nodes in the distributed system, providethe interactive flow map to a user interface for displaying theinteractive flow map, and cause the user interface to automaticallydisplay the interactive flow map and the correlated report through theprovided user interface.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein whendetermining that that the loading of the web page has not completed, theone or more modules are executable to perform operations including:reset the timer; restart the timer; and perform the recursively checkfor completion of the loading of the web page.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein when determining whether the Java script engine of the webbrowser loading the web page is idle, the one or more modules areexecutable to perform operations including: determine whether anynetwork requests have ended in a most recent pre-determined time period.4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more modules are executableto perform the recursive check that the loading of the web page hascompleted including: determine whether all pending network requests havefinished; or determine whether a global ceiling has been reached; ordetermine both that all the pending network requests have finished andthe global ceiling has been reached.
 5. The system of claim 1, whereinthe one or more modules are executable to perform the recursive checkthat the loading of the web page has completed including: check for oneor more iframes; and attach load listeners to the one or more iframeswhen found.
 6. The system of claim 1, the device is further configuredto: identify performance issues with the monitored applications from thereceived data; and determine a relationship between the identifiedperformance issues and the generated report of the web page.
 7. A methodfor automatic detection of web page loading at a web browser of a clientdevice in a monitored environment, the method including: detecting startof loading of a web page at the web browser of the client device in themonitored environment; setting a dynamic watchdog repeating timer at avalue; start the timer; recursively checking for completion of theloading of the web page; when determined that the loading of the webpage has completed, determine whether a Java script engine of the webbrowser loading the web page is idle; when determined that the Javascript engine of the web browser loading the web page is idle, stop thetimer and generate a report of the web page; and sending the generatedreport to a device in the network receiving data associated with themonitored environment including applications performed over adistributed system of interconnected nodes of machines to correlate thereceived data with the generated report; wherein the device including aprocessor and a memory, is configured to: identify nodes of interest andone or more chains of nodes connected to the nodes of interest from theinterconnected nodes based on the received data, generate an interactiveflow map of the interconnected nodes in the distributed system; providethe interactive flow map to a user interface for displaying theinteractive flow map, and cause the user interface to automaticallydisplay the interactive flow map and the correlated report through theprovided user interface.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein whendetermining that that the loading of the web page has not completed,performing operations including: resetting the timer; restarting thetimer; and performing the recursively check for completion of theloading of the web page.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein whendetermining whether the Java script engine of the web browser loadingthe web page is idle, performing operations including: determiningwhether any network requests have ended in a most recent pre-determinedtime period.
 10. The method of claim 7, wherein recursively checking forcompletion of the loading of the web page include: determining whetherall pending network requests have finished; or determining whether aglobal ceiling has been reached; or determining that both all thepending network requests have finished and the global ceiling has beenreached.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein recursively checking forcompletion of the loading of the web page includes: checking for one ormore iframes; and attaching load listeners to the one or more iframeswhen found.
 12. The method of claim 7, wherein the device is furtherconfigured to: identify performance issues with the monitoredapplications from the received data, and determine a relationshipbetween the identified performance issues and the generated report ofthe web page.
 13. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodyinginstructions when executed by a processor to cause operations to beperformed for automatic detection of web page loading at a web browserof a client device in a monitored environment, the operations including:detecting start of loading of a web page at the web browser of theclient device in the monitored environment; setting a dynamic watchdogrepeating timer at a value; start the timer; recursively checking forcompletion of the loading of the web page; when determined that theloading of the web page has completed, determine whether a Java scriptengine of the web browser loading the web page is idle; when determinedthat the Java script engine of the web browser loading the web page isidle, stop the timer and generate a report of the web page; and sendingthe generated report to a device in the network receiving dataassociated with the monitored environment including applicationsperformed over a distributed system of interconnected nodes of machinesto correlate the received data with the generated report; wherein thedevice including a processor and a memory, is configured to: identifynodes of interest and one or more chains of nodes connected to the nodesof interest from the interconnected nodes based on the received data,generate an interactive flow map of the interconnected nodes in thedistributed system, provide the interactive flow map to a user interfacefor displaying the interactive flow map, and cause the user interface toautomatically display the interactive flow map and the correlated reportthrough the provided user interface.
 14. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 13, wherein when determining that that theloading of the web page has not completed, performing operationsincluding: resetting the timer; restarting the timer; and performing therecursively check for completion of the loading of the web page.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein whendetermining whether the Java script engine of the web browser loadingthe web page is idle, performing operations including: determiningwhether any network requests have ended in a most recent pre-determinedtime period.
 16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim13, wherein recursively checking for completion of the loading of theweb page include: determining whether all pending network requests havefinished; or determining whether a global ceiling has been reached; ordetermining that both all the pending network requests have finished andthe global ceiling has been reached.
 17. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 13, wherein recursively checking for completionof the loading of the web page includes: checking for one or moreiframes; and attaching load listeners to the one or more iframes whenfound.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13,wherein the device is further configured to: identify performance issueswith the monitored applications from the received data, and determine arelationship between the identified performance issues and the generatedreport of the web page.